October 27, 2005 -- Google, the company that dominates online advertising, would like to try its hand at buying and selling television ad time.
Google, already dabbling in print ads, recently confirmed that it's "mulling" ways to extend its ad-brokering system to television spots as well.
If Google succeeds, it would mark a major turning point for an industry that has rebuffed other attempts at creating new ways to buy and sell TV ad time.
Traditional media companies have learned never to underestimate Google, but television and ad execs say the complicated, research-driven model of selling TV time will be tough – if not impossible – to crack.
"I've seen brokering ideas like this before and they end up fizzling," said Steven Saslow, a veteran media exec and the chief of ConfirMedia, which helps advertisers track ad placement.
Google executives are quick to concede that it will be difficult and played down the notion that the firm is encroaching on anyone's turf.
"We are always considering new ways to extend Google's advertising program to benefit our users, advertisers and publishers," a spokesman said. Google CEO Eric Schmidt was more open in an interview last week after the company reported blowout earnings, telling the Wall Street Journal that "it's certainly on the list" of projects.
So far, network execs have resisted all efforts to resell their ad time or allow it – in their words – to become a dreaded "commodity" akin to corn or pork bellies.
The television networks, along with the media firms that buy ad time and space on behalf of advertisers, also vehemently reject the notion that buying a TV spot can be reduced to a computer-run auction.
Most big advertisers, such as Procter & Gamble and General Motors, buy many spots across multiple broadcast and cable channels, a process that requires months of extensive planning and research, media execs say.
"Most sellers don't want to put their inventory in someone else's control," said Rick Sirvaitis, the former head of GM Mediaworks, which bought ad space for the auto giant.
"I don't see a broadcast network doing it. And I would be surprised if any major cable network would do it," said Sirvaitis.
That means Google would have to start small on television, perhaps with niche cable channels that are starved for ad dollars, media execs said.
It could also try to buy and resell so-called spot advertising that cable and satellite operators sell in local TV markets.
Google will not be the first to attempt to broker TV ad time.
Before its spectacular meltdown, Enron tried to create a marketplace for trading advertising in 2001. When the venture was dissolved less than a year later, employees said that Enron made some deals with cable companies in the spot market, but it was unable to attract the major networks or media firms.
